Bug bite
by mieh
Summary: Donna has an allergy.


_AN: Just a little something silly to end the decade. Happy New Year, friends!_

* * *

When Harvey Specter walks into his office at five o'clock on a Monday afternoon, he gets struck by the most puzzling view: Donna Paulsen at a corner, almost bent in half, one hand gripping the armrest of his leather couch, the other doing something complicated to her back, and a look to her face… a bewildering mixture of pain and pleasure all at once. Her eyes are squeezed shut and she doesn't notice his presence until he lets his bafflement out.

"What _on earth_ are you doing?!"

She looks at him and tries to straighten up a little bit, but Harvey's presence doesn't disturb her any more than that.

"Scratching."

"_What?"_

"Something bit me, it's itching like a motherfucker."

And with that being said, she squeezes her eyes shut again, restarting the vigorous movements of her right hand to her back to what Harvey then notices she has a ruler tight in her grasp, which she is using to scratch a spot right in the middle of her back.

"How the hell did you get bit here?" he asks, confused by the improbability of such a thing in the enclosed, temperature-regulated offices of Pearson Hardman. "Or _there,_" he adds, finding it even more weird that a bug could bite her through her dress.

"It wasn't here–UGH," she starts, getting interrupted by a frustrated groan indicating her ruler maneuver is not efficient enough. "Could you just help me?!"

He stumbles in place for a moment, the connection between his brain and body clearly malfunctioning in response to her ask, but he then just propels himself in her direction, standing beside her and getting a closer look at what she's attempting to do.

"I can't… reach it properly," she unnecessarily explains, the itchiness too much on the forefront of all her thoughts for her to pay a second of attention to Harvey's awkwardness.

He places his fingers right in the middle of her back and starts scratching gently.

"Here?" he asks.

"A bit higher…" she instructs. "Now a little to the left..."

He hits the right spot and she all but moans, before immediately demanding, "Harvey, _harder!_"

He does his best to scratch her back vigorously considering the zipper of her dress runs right in front of where the bug bite apparently is. At a point he just flattens his palm on her back and rubs the fabric and zipper into her skin and that's what ultimately gets her off, or calms her down, as he corrects his train of thought, which got a little derailed when she moaned at the action.

With a heavy sigh, she drops down on the couch.

"Okay. Now explain," Harvey says as he fetches them a drink, trying to minimize the amusement in his expression since she's so obviously in distress.

"I had this yoga thing in the park last night and something bit me."

"What were you wearing?" He smirks as he hands her a tumbler of scotch.

"_That's_ what you're going with?"

He just shrugs as he sits beside her.

"I was wearing a sports bra, okay? Moving on."

Harvey chuckles into his drink. "And it just started scratching now?"

"No, it's been bugging me all day and I've already taken two anti-allergy pills, which have done nothing, and I'm pretty sure now it's swelling." She shimmies on the couch, scratching her back against the cushions.

"Do you need to go home?" he asks, actual concern seeping into his tone for the first time.

"Probably," she says, placing her drink on the coffee table and reaching back for one more scratch. "But I called the pharmacy for some other stuff to be delivered here."

Harvey looks at her and hesitates. Her arm is twisted around her back and her perfectly manicured nails are trying their hardest to scratch beyond the obstacle of the zipper. He reaches for her, places his hand on her back, and does his rub-palm-and-fabric move again while Donna leans her side against the armrest and just lets him.

The sound of knuckles against glass interrupts them. A delivery guy stands by the door with a paper bag in hand.

"Donna Paulsen?" he asks, glancing at the redhead inside.

"Yeah," Harvey answers, getting up to collect the delivery and pay for the itens.

When he gets back to Donna's side he takes upon himself to open the parcel and extend her the medicine. Donna takes it from his hands in a haste, hurriedly opening the bottle, popping a pill and swallowing it down with the nearest liquid available, which just happens to be the scotch on the coffee table.

"Hm… should you be taking that with alcohol?"

"I'm pretty sure I shouldn't," she answers, frowning as if it's the first she actually considers that, which it actually is, with how desperate she was for the promise of relief that pill represented, but that doesn't seem to bother her much at the moment. "But seriously, how much worse can it get?" she shrugs.

"What's this?" Harvey asks, reading the box on the second item on the parcel.

"An ointment. It's antiallergic and also supposed to soothe the skin," she says, as she grabs the box from his hands and starts opening it until she realizes she's not in the best place or outfit to apply it.

She stops for a moment. Then starts gazing at the empty hallway outside Harvey's office.

"I should… probably go to the bathroom," she mentions.

"Come on, it'll only be a minute and you can't really reach it by yourself," Harvey dismisses her suggestion as he too concludes the hallways are clear. Besides, they're right in the corner of the office and he's in front of her anyways in the odd chance someone walks by.

She opens her mouth, unsure of how to answer, but Harvey's already retrieving the medication from her hands and ushering her to turn around, which she automatically does, guided by him and the desirable prospect of some relief.

She twists around, facing the city view and quickly pulling her hair over her shoulder.

Harvey's fingertips immediately reach the back of her neck, taking the zipper between his fingers and pulling it down along her spine, until it reaches just a couple of inches below the back of her bra (silky and dark red – she makes a mental note to congratulate herself on the choice later). Then a couple of seconds later his fingertips are rubbing a cool, jelly, slippery something into her back and the relief is instant.

"Oh, _thank_ _god!_" she mumbles under her breath.

Harvey chuckles lightly. "Good?"

"_So good. _I could stay right here forever."

Harvey rubs the substance into her irritated skin for which is decidedly a little longer than strictly necessary until Donna clears her throat. "Hm, I think you got it."

He would be embarrassed if it wasn't for the fact that he's completely shameless, or for the fact that there was an unmistakable hint of humor to her comment.

"Just making sure you're all… soothed," he answers with a smug smirk she doesn't see, but he's already pulling the zipper back up, saying goodbye to her pretty freckles on the way and wondering what the front of that bra looks like.

She settles back into the cushions once she's all zipped up.

"Okay, I should be fine now. This pill is supposed to be much stronger than the other ones I took."

"Especially considering you swallowed it down with scotch…"

"Yeah, that too. So do you need anything or is it okay if I leave early?"

"No, don't go yet. What if you have another episode right in the middle of the street?"

"An _episode_?" she asks mid laugh.

"You were bent in half attacking yourself with a ruler!"

"Okay, you have a point," she concedes. "I'll just wait for like twenty minutes until the pill kicks in, just in case?"

He nods in agreement. "Then I'll ask Ray to take you."

"Thanks." She smiles. "And how was court?" she asks, changing the subject.

Harvey tells her about his brief afternoon endeavor at the courthouse where he managed to get an extra week to prepare for trial and then he and Donna eventually start reading the case files.

They get comfortable on the couch, she slipping off her heels and folding her legs under herself and him rolling up his sleeves and loosening his tie. He keeps drinking, she remembers it's probably a good idea if she doesn't. At some point, and he can't really say if it's within the established twenty minutes she had given herself or much later, he notices she's gone too quiet.

Glancing over he sees that she's fallen asleep. Case file resting on her lap, head tilted towards him and resting on a cushion. The view causes him to stop and hold his breath. Her long eyelashes rest on the top of her cheeks. The daylight had vanished outside and the lamp right above them casts a bright golden light on the freckles peppered on the bridge of her nose. Her rosy lips have just the tiniest gap between them as she peacefully breathes in and out.

Anti-allergy pills. Can really knock someone out.

He plans on letting her rest beside him for a few minutes, feeling weirdly reluctant about waking her up and sending her away. But then he reads just a couple more pages before he feels guilty and decides to just take her home.

"Donna," he calls, but it doesn't register with her at all.

Harvey lightly places a hand on her knee, calling her name again and this time she moves, sleepily shifting on the couch in a way that makes her head slip from the cushions right into his shoulder, where she settles, sighing happily.

Harvey sinks back into the couch slowly, careful not to disturb her. He turns his face to her and she's _so close_ he could kiss her forehead if he really wanted to.

Instead he lightly pushes a strand of hair from her eyes, tucking it behind her ear, deeply breathing in the smell of her hair, right there, so close, brushing his cheekbone.

And he lets her sleep.


End file.
